


Something Good Can Work

by MiniNephthys



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Gen, POV Second Person, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2015-11-10
Packaged: 2018-05-01 00:58:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5186162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Papyrus is an excellent, if unexpected, life coach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Good Can Work

A funny thing happens when you spend a good deal of your life as a homicidal flower, if by ‘funny’ you mean ‘miserable and terrifying’.

Once you come back to your senses, you want as little to do with that part of your life as possible. You distance yourself. That wasn’t you. None of that was the real you. You’re a good person, really you are.

And so, if something ever comes up that is less than ‘good’, you don’t acknowledge it. You have to be the good child, because you can’t be Flowey any longer. If you’re going to be one or the other, you’re going to be Asriel Dreemurr, who certainly isn’t mean, or spiteful, or anything that Flowey is.

You tell yourself that every day, and while it’s a comfort to not feel yourself so intimately entwined with everything that Flowey did, it leaves you little room for error.

You think Frisk notices this, but Frisk isn’t the type to say anything about it, at least not right now. They frown, and they worry, but they don’t confront you about it outright.

You think Chara notices this too, but Chara has enough of their own problems related to past mistakes that they wouldn’t know where to begin helping you with yours. That’s probably for the best, that the two of you aren’t only relying on each other for help now.

You’re definitely not expecting Papyrus to notice this.

Papyrus, wearing his jogging outfit, stops midrun when he sees you by the roadside. “Oh, Asriel! I’ve been meaning to talk to you, and this is an excellent opportunity! Jog with me!”

“Uh?” you say, and look at the sweat he’s worked up already (somehow, you don’t know how skeletons manage to sweat and neither do your parents). “I don’t know if I can keep up with you...”

“Not to worry! You can walk, and I’ll jog very slowly!”

So you walk alongside him. “What did you want to talk about?”

“It has come to my attention,” Papyrus says, “that you may not be allowing yourself to feel negative things.”

“But I feel negative things all the time,” you say. “I still cry a lot...”

He shakes his head, and lowers his voice a little. “I meant things like anger, or resentment, or things like that. Things you aren’t proud of.”

You stop in your tracks for a moment, before picking up your pace again. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Everyone has negative moments,” he says. “Even I, the great Papyrus, sometimes think or say things that are less than kind.”

You start to laugh, because this is Papyrus you’re talking to here, bastion of positivity and goodness.

“It’s true!” he insists. “I yell at my brother for making bad jokes when I know they cheer him up, and so few things do that for him now. I’m trying to work on that, but it’s a hard habit to break. And people annoy me sometimes. The point is that all of that is normal - and even if I don’t like being mad at other people, I’m not mad at myself for being mad, and I don’t tell myself I’m not mad. Does that makes sense?”

“Not really,” you say.

“Hmm...” Papyrus taps his chin, thinking. “Maybe it’s more like this: we’re not going to treat you like you’re a flower again if you get angry.”

You stop and stare at him. “That’s... you...”

“I’m right, aren’t I?” he says. “The great Papyrus is an excellent life coach! And now, we’re going to jog a lap around the block while shouting about how good we feel about ourselves! It worked for Alphys! Ready?”

You’re still in a daze from being read so easily. So you nod without thinking.

“Okay! ‘I am a valuable monster no matter how I feel!’”

Papyrus starts jogging faster, and you scramble to catch up. “I... am a valuable monster, no matter how I feel!”

It seems ridiculous. But maybe it’s better than what you’ve been doing so far.


End file.
